A complete guide to advertising with Google AdWords Part 4: Relevance, Quality Score, and Ad Rank

Relevance is the keyword when an advertiser intends to produce a successful Google Adwords pay-per-click campaign. Google hasn’t retained its position at the top of the search engine ladder by disregarding its users. In order to provide users with the best of services, Google has to provide them with relevant solutions and ads to their queries. Therefore, relevance is immensely important for an ad campaign to succeed. And Google rewards relevance richly; the more relevant your keywords are, the higher Quality Score you’ll get. And the higher Quality Score you get, the more beneficial your ad campaign is.

A Google Adwords campaign is incomplete without the mention of Adwords Quality Score. In order to ensure that your Google Adwords pay-per-click campaign is successful, you need to pay special attention to the upkeep and improvement of Google Adwords Quality Score. Why? This is because it determines both what you pay-per-click along with your ad ranking.

What exactly is Google Adwords Quality Score?
“Quality Score is a variable assigned to your keywords which measures their relevance in terms of their ad group and user’s search query. There are several factors that play an essential part in determining the quality score – relevant landing pages, relevant ads and campaigns, etc.”
Why does it matter?
Since Google is the leading contender in the search engine race, the need to provide relevant and tailored solution to user queries is essential. This is where quality score comes in – it helps Google ensure that the ads users are being shown are relevant to their queries.
There are several reasons why as an advertiser you may need to consider Quality Score to be a vital part of your Google Adwords campaign.

This metric allows you to judge whether you can enter a certain keyword in an auction and if it will be displayed in the Google Search Network for a user’s query.

It also determines the Ad Rank – which is a vital part of every Google Adwords Campaign. Google Search Network’s ad rank formula is as follows:

Ad Rank = CPC bid × Quality Score

As this metric is responsible for determining the ad rank, knowing the quality Score can help advertisers working on a limited budget to optimize their accounts and reserve top positions for their ads – despite having lower bids than a rival’s.

It’s not only Google Search Network’s ad rank that gets affected, because Quality Score plays its part in affecting the ad rank on Google Display Network as well. Google Display Network’s ad rank formula is as follows:

Ad Rank = Display Network bid × Quality Score

How can you check your keyword’s quality score?
Checking a keyword’s quality score is pretty easy. What you need to do is:

Click on the Campaigns Tab

Next, you’ll see the Keywords tab. Select it.

Once you’re in the keywords section,

click on a speech bubble next to any keyword and you’ll see its quality score.

You’ll see the rating of:

Expected click through rate

Ad relevance

Landing page experience

Voila. You’re done.

How does Quality Score affect Ad rank?
Quality Score is given on a scale of 1 to 10 – 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest. So if your keyword gets a low score, then it won’t be eligible to enter the auction, which in turn would mean that your ad won’t show. Also, a low quality score means a low ad rank – which is extra scary on its own as it means low traffic and a lower ROI.
An Ad rank is calculated when a user’s action prompts an ad that contests in an auction. This calculation consists of:

The bid

Expected CTR’s auction-time measurements

Ad relevance

Landing page experience

Etc.

How to increase your Quality Score?
There are several instances when despite everything, the quality score of our keywords just doesn’t improve and keeps on dropping. So what should be done then? How can you improve the Quality Score of your keywords? Well, there are several factors that directly, and in some cases indirectly affect the Quality score of a keyword; improving them can eventually improve the quality score.

Click-through Rate: The CTR of keywords influences its quality score vastly. How? Well if the ratio for a keyword is bordering on high, then Google considers that keyword to be relevant and gives it a high Quality Score. This also results in a higher SERP position along with a lower minimum bid.

Account Structure: Google Adwords loves relevant keyword groups and accounts that are structured logically. This is why when Google Adwords is formulating your Quality Score it places great emphasis on account structure. And what constitutes as relevant keyword groups? Keyword groups that are focused and small; they will positively influence your Quality Score.

Keywords: It goes without saying that keywords play a huge role in influencing your Quality Score. They’re usually defined as ‘Poor’, ‘Ok’, or ‘Great’ and are displayed within your ad campaign. In order to beat low keyword Quality score, start arranging them into well-structured campaigns and organize them into focused ad groups that revolve around the searchers intent.

Ad Text: Better Ad text means better Quality Score. So try different ways through which you can speak to your audience as the perceived relevance of an ad text can be tricky to master. A relevant, targeted text goes a long way, so make sure you keep it focused and relevant. Also, since you get one allotted exclamation point per ad, don’t forget to make great use of it.

Ad Extensions: Using Google Adwords ad extensions is always a good idea as they provide users with increased clicking space and make an ad appear bigger. This increases the CTR and that too, for free.

Landing Page: Landing Page Quality Score is determined by the keyword and the ad text level. If Google Score spiders don’t find relevant keywords that are similar to those in your ad group and ad text, they assign a lower Quality Score to it.

How can you fix a low quality score?
Have you been at the receiving end of low quality score? At some point or the other, everyone goes through this problem. However, by improving upon the below mentioned points, you can easily get a higher quality score.

Keeping Ad text relevant and making good use of the allotted exclamation mark.

Using Ad extensions

Using keywords on your landing page that are similar to those in your ad groups and ad text.

Arranging keywords in organized and focused groups which cater to a single topic or theme.

Structuring accounts in a way that keyword groups are small and focus. Eliminating any irrelevant keywords in a group.

Conclusion:
There are two things that Quality Score leans heavily on; relevance and structure. So in order to ensure a high quality score, you need to make sure that your keywords, ad text, ad groups, landing page all build on each other.